There are only so many people we want to have in front of our camera to interview. We were lucky that we’ve already had some great people ‘captured forever’ in the digital format, and now we can add another ‘Guru’ to our Hall of Fame: Guy Kawasaki. On the Marketing Pioneers Congress last week he presented his new book ‘Enchantment’ and we had a chance to have a short interview with him. Obviously, we grabbed this chance with both hands. An interview about enchantment, ‘Dutch drop’, Facebook pages, MAP and pioneering.

What makes a person a ‘Marketing Pioneer’?Kawasaki: “If you dare to use new technologies before they become mainstream. Currently these are Twitter and Facebook, but think also Gowalla, Foursquare and Loopt. Think also about the impact Groupon has. What does this mean, really? And there’s lots of work to be done in analytics; which value does your initiatives on Facebook provide you? Many followers is not equal to high impact.

Are you a Marketing Pioneer yourself?“Well, I’m for sure no laggard. I am not the first in everything. I started late with Twitter and blogging”

And Apple. How did Apple change the way you look at innovation?“Working at Apple completely changed my view on reality. I learned from Steve Jobs that a really good product must have a good user interface, that this is important for many people. And not only the price is important. I have also learned that a good product does not necessarily mean best sales. After all, the Mac has only 10% market share.

Doing new stuff, pioneering within a large organization. What is the biggest challenge for people who want to pioneer. What tips do you have?
Ask forgiveness instead of permission. Don’t go to the VP-level. The higher you go in an organization, the thinner the air. The thinner the air, the more difficult it is to support intelligent life.”

Your new book, “Enchantment”. What’s your elevator pitch, taking into account that the buildings in Holland are not very tall.
“Enchantment helps you to capture the heart and soul of people. It helps to please people, so that they become loyal customers.”

What’s the difference between enchantment and evangelism?
“Evangelizing is selling on the basis of a dream. Enchantment is about total relationships; you do not only buy a Mac, but everything: the iPhone, iPad, i-whatever. Anything that comes out of the pipeline of Apple. Enchantment is a higher level of delight.”

How do you enchant your employees?
The best way is MAP: Mastery – making sure employees master what they are doing, Autonomy – empower the employees, give them freedom to choose, and Purpose – make their work meaningful. This things are as important, if not more important, than money.”

Where can we find your book?
“Funny. This really is a marketing question. I had to choose between a website for the book, or a Facebook page. I chose for the Facebook page. There are so many advantages having a Facebook page. You have less evil hate-filled people and spammers. Most people are who they are on Facebook, that provides a buffering effect. Links are built-in, pictures, status updates. It’s a nice controlled garden or a product such as my book.”

Two years ago we started to follow @rohal on Twitter, because he seems to provide interesting information about healthcare in relation to social media. It was only a year later that we met Rob Halkes (his real name) IRL, obviously on a pharma congress. We exchanged some info about our companies and our passion for social media in healthcare. We stayed in touch through the twittersphere.

Fast forward a year and we met again on Medicine 2.0 in Maastricht, this time on the tweetup of #HCSMEU. Rob kindly invited us to his office in Waardenburg, a small town in the middle of the Netherlands. It appeared in our discussions that we were both passioned about possibilities of new communication technologies to business, healthcare, and pharma. We expect it to change these fields quickly and completely. And that became the start of a new adventure.

Rob Halkes leads the Medical and Life Sciences Division of the Van Spaendock Management Consultants. Rob has extensive experience in the market of pharmaceutical and life sciences. He has been working at strategic change, innovation and professional development with executive, marketing, sales and medical management. Before that he has been a lecturer at Tilburg University.

In the pharmaceutical industry his group is currently developing “value innovation” as a new business model, differentiating the market approach to segmented DMUs, innovating sales force effectiveness, segmentation and targeting, marketing and communication, KOL, CRM, multichannel management. In the Netherlands his team has worked for the major pharmaceutical companies.

Van Spaendock Management Consultants is part of the Van Spaendonck Group and are specialized in change processes and also have activities in the fields of Trade & Industry, and Government.

The activities of Van Spaendonck fits perfectly with our vision of implementing change using digital technologies. On a higher level, we believe that these technologies evoke change or at least have a catalytic effect on this changing environment. It seems that DigiRedo and Van Spaendonck share this vision. How valuable could it be to bring a shared vision to the market?

We have agreed to further explore synergies between DigiRedo and Van Spaendock. It will be awesome, so stay tuned. One synergy has already been effectuated: office space. Van Spaendock houses in a beautiful 16th century castle in the town of Waardenburg (actually, the foundation is much older, but that’s a long story). On the first floor some offices were empty and we were invited to rent this part of the castle to establish our first headquarters of DigiRedo. How could we resist being part of such a rich Dutch historical setting, so we duly accepted😉. From this week on, DigiRedo will work, brainstorm, drink coffee and meet guests in a pretty awesome environment. And the fact that the castle seems to be in the top 5 of haunted castles in the Netherlands? Well, at least we have a story to tell.

You’re most welcome to drop by. You can find us at:

Castle Waardenburg

Waalbandijk 13

4181 AN Waardenburg

Cheers! On a new adventure. Kuddos to Mindy for taking care of the bubbles...

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We haven’t been very faithful to our readers. A lot of things have happened the last month of 2010 and it was a true roller-coaster from a professional and personal point of view. Some bad (see previous post), but fortunately mostly good. We look back to a great 2010 where we again were able to create some great concepts, met inspiring people and worked hard to further establish our position in the market. And a crazy market it is. Mobile took off like a rocker and 2010 will be seen as the year ‘it really started’. We’re not blind for these developments, so expect some great news on this soon.

We have caressing named two thousand and eleven ‘Time To Grow Up’. No strings attached anymore to an employer, we are on our own completely. We have identified the following fields of attention:

Build and implement great digital concepts

Extend our network to meet inspiring people

Build the team and get a house.

Not only developing but also building and implementing digital concepts that fit like a glove has always been our passion and we continue to invest in that. There are too many agencies bullshitting around with nice words about new/social/digital media. “Yeah, let’s make a Twitter account for you, and combine it with a Facebook page”. But what about the change process within a company? Or your customers? Are they ready for it? Don’t get me wrong, we truly believe in the changes caused by digital, but we also like to develop concepts that actually provide a value for the customer. And for that, most companies have to go through a cultural change, or -like one of our customers wisely stated- a cultural enhancement. You need a new leadership, one that not only understands the true power of these technologies but also provides the headspace for empowered employees to actually use these tools. A leadership that motivates employees, not with a carrot and a stick but by giving work a purpose. Related to this we are true believers in the thinking of Li (Open Leadership), McAfee (Enterprise 2.0), Solis (Engage), Pink (Drive) and Bernoff (Empowered) (yep, we’re reading them all, as we speak). We know a few Leaders (and I think with a capital L) who understand these challenges and act accordingly. But boy, do we meet also some so-called leaders who will soon join the destiny of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

We want to be amazed. Amazed by the thoughts of other people. And we want to meet people to further extend our network. We do not believe in a traditional way of ‘advertising’, we believe in the power of a network. One of the really great things about being an entrepreneur is the ability to meet truly inspiring people, people with a passion and with a story. Collect wise people around you and you never look stupid…

We can only make our dream come true if we have people around us who are as passionate about making great stuff as we are. Whether it is a film, a website, a workshop or an animation. We are fortunate to have found these people and we thank them for their dedication. We’re looking forward to another great year of co-operation. Digital Nomads as we are, we also like to have a ‘safe home’ and work together on projects. We think we found something. Stay tuned for more.

Rabies is a lethal disease that still claims more than 25,000 Africans per year, mainly children. While rabies is preventable with vaccination, fighting it is a huge undertaking. The Afya Serengeti project alone encompasses an area inhabited by more than 6 million people and 500,000 domestic dogs.

This Award of Excellence is a fantastic recognition for this sympathetic campaign.

Today, 28 september 2010, is World Rabies Day. World Rabies Day is an initiative of the Global Allience for Rabies Control and their mission is to raise awareness about the impact of human and animal rabies, how easy it is to prevent it, and how to eliminate the main global sources.

Through a selection events (of which World Rabies Day is one of the annual highlights) WRD has reached over 100 million people and vaccinated over 3 million animals against rabies. Despite that, 50.000 people still die annually of rabies, most of which are children. One of the vaccination campaigns is the Afya Serengeti project of which we reported here before. Aim of this project is to vaccinate all privatly owned dogs that live in the villages and communities surrounding the Serengeti Park in Tanzania. And with succes, as outbreaks of rabies has not been seen in areas where more than 70% of dogs are vaccinated since the start of the campaign in 2003. One of our clients, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health has supported this campaign the last couple of years by donating a dose of rabies to the project for every dose of vaccine sold. We’ve made a videoseries in 2008 about the campaign to give you an impression of the effort made by the team. This campaign was nominated for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award 2009 by the Royal Dutch Veterinary Association.

WRD uses various social media tools to promote their activities like Twitter and Facebook. In addition to that they use video and webinars for educational purposes. Today, for examples, they organize throughout the day 4 webinars. Besides that, you can also demonstrate your support to WRD by sending specially developed Health eCards or by placing special buttons on your website or below your email messages. No matter how small, it’s one step closer to the ultimate goal: a world free of rabies.

I know, I know, we talk a lot about Apple products. And, I know, we’re Apple geeks. But be honest. Every time again, the greatness of the brand is confirmed. And every time from a different angle. Take Shannon Rosa. Shannon won an iPad in a raffle. And when she came home she gave the iPad to Leo, her nine-year-old son. Leo is autistic. He is a very slow learner, he is not conversational and can have serious outbursts of anger. But when he, almost without any training, started to play with the iPad, his mother stood in awe. Intuitively he flicked though all the icons, trying one app after another. And he started to play with apps that help him how to spell, to make puzzles and to remember pictures. For 30 minutes straight. To the amazement of his mum.

In just the few months the iPad is on the market, developers many applications especially for users with special needs. And with success. Many autism experts and parents have used the iPad with these special apps in many occasions with autistic kids all around the world. All are amazed with the results it gives. Studies already show the results on the learning abilities of some of these children. In some cases, kids have been able to communicate directly with their parents for the first time in their lives, thanks to the iPad.

Rosa is very happy she won the raffle. And full of admiration with Apple’s CEO. “I don’t usually dabble in miracle-speak”, she says, “but I may erect a tiny altar for Steve Jobs in the corner of our living room.”